Critical Theory of Love (CToL)
Love, redefined as a political and pedagogical commitment to resist erasure and dehumanization.
A professor once told my graduate class that she was there to colonize us. My lungs caved in. What followed — the bullying, the denial of feedback, ultimately became the impetus for a question that has shaped my scholarship and practice ever since: what is the role of love in social transformation?
I went looking for the answer in the field of social justice education. I found very little. So I began to build it.
The Critical Theory of Love argues that love is not romance, familial affection, or private sentiment. It is a political and pedagogical commitment — one that resists erasure and dehumanization, tends to the whole person, and measures itself by how effectively it interrupts alienation and heals. In this framing, love is what justice looks like in practice: embodied, historically grounded, and materially accountable to the lives it claims to serve.
From Theory to Field
The peer reviewed article was the beginning. My dissertation asked Black queer cultural workers what love had done in their lives, and let their experiences ground the theory.
Then I took the question on the road. For years, at conferences and gatherings across the country, I asked audiences the same thing: what is love, and what is its role in social transformation? Hundreds of people answered. Their responses — from movement leaders, organizers, educators, and community members — refined the framework and became the foundation for the trilogy I later published in Nonprofit Quarterly.
To date, I have facilitated the Critical Theory of Love with thousands of participants across nonprofits, labor organizations, higher education institutions, and movement spaces.
A Critical Theory of Love
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Developing a Critical Conceptualization of Love in Our Social Justice Work (2024)
Often, people talk about the importance of love in our social justice and movement building work, but very few define and operationalize it…
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Love and Social Justice (2024)
At its core, a Critical Theory of Love (CToL) invites us to rethink how love is defined and how it influences our daily lives. This theory challenges us to explore whether our current understanding of love supports or undermines the pursuit of social justice…
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Reconceptualizing Love for Social Justice (2024)
Reimagining and reconceptualizing love must be a top priority if we are to meet the demands of social justice movements in the 21st century….
Bring the Critical Theory of Love to Your Community
I offer the Critical Theory of Love as both a keynote and a workshop, and have delivered it in both forms for thousands of participants — across movement organizations, universities, labor, and community spaces.
The keynote frames the theory for the room: what love has to do with liberation, why the field of social justice has under-theorized it, and what changes when we take love seriously as a political and pedagogical commitment. Best for conferences, convenings, and organizational gatherings looking to set intellectual and emotional ground for the work ahead.
The workshop moves from framework to practice. Participants leave with a working relationship to love — as pedagogy, as leadership commitment, and as a discipline for staying whole in the long work of justice. Best for teams, cohorts, and organizations investing in sustained internal development.